Adams County deputy shot by LaSalle police officer dies

The Adams County sheriff’s deputy who was shot by a LaSalle police officer following a pursuit has died.

The deputy, Jesse Bennett Jenson, 41, succumbed to his injuries about 6 p.m. Friday at North Colorado Medical Center, according to a news release from Greeley police spokesman Sgt. Joe Tymkowych, who served as the spokesman for the investigation.

The chase began about 10:25 p.m. Wednesday when police began pursuing two vehicles on U.S. 85 north of Platteville. The pursuit ended at U.S. 85 and 42nd Street in Evans.

Multiple law enforcement agencies participated in the chase. However, no Greeley officers were involved. A LaSalle police officer, whose name has not been released, shot the driver following the pursuit.

Investigators located the second vehicle involved in the chase and contacted the driver. Police also have not named the driver of the second vehicle.

The 19th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team, which is comprised of law enforcement officers from across Weld County, is continuing to investigate the shooting, and will release additional information as it becomes available, the release stated.

Police are asking anyone with information about this incident or who may have witnessed any portion of the pursuit to contact Lt. Kevin Halloran at the Weld County Sheriff's Office at (970) 400-2837 Ext. 2837, or Sgt. Aaron Walker at (970) 400-5807.

Tymkowych also said Friday the deputy was not doing police work when he and the other driver sped through rural Weld County — reaching speeds of more than 90 mph — adding that he was not in a marked patrol car and “there was no legitimate pursuit.”

This is one of two vehicles that caught fire Saturday afternoon following a crash on U.S. 34 at Weld County Road 17. (Kevin Maloney/For The Tribune)

Greeley police charged a woman Wednesday in a Saturday crash that severely injured another woman.

Officer Rebecca Ries, a spokeswoman for the department, said Jordan Persichitte was charged Wednesday morning with careless driving resulting in injury.

The charge is a Class 1 misdemeanor traffic offense in Colorado punishable by 10 days to 12 months in jail, or a $300 to $1,000 fine, or both.

About 5 p.m. Saturday, Persichitte was driving about 65 mph along U.S. 34 westbound near Weld County Road 17 when she rear-ended Christine Olson, who was stopped in the right lane with her hazards on, experiencing a mechanical issue with her car.

Police said Monday that Persichitte, 26, told them she looked down at her coffee. Next thing she knew, her airbags deployed.

The force sent both cars into and partially through the intersection, and they burst into flames. Persichitte was physically unharmed, but Olson, 35, was unconscious and trapped in her burning car.

Ries said three male bystanders stepped in, pulling Olson to safety.

Olson was taken to North Colorado Medical Center with severe injuries and shortly transferred to intensive care at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, where she was in stable, but critical, condition. She remained there Wednesday.

The Tribune reached out to the hospital for Olson’s updated condition.

— Kelsy Schlotthauer covers breaking news and just about anything else for the Greeley Tribune. Reach her at kschlotthauer@greeleytribune.com, (970) 392-4439 or on Twitter @K_Schlott.

First responders worked multiple crashes Saturday night in Weld County

Weld County first responders were at the scenes of multiple serious crashes Saturday night.

About 6:15 p.m., first responders were called to a report of a single-vehicle rollover crash on Colo. 52 and Weld County Road 67 east of Hudson. The caller reported there were multiple injuries and people were trapped inside the vehicle. No other details were immediately available.

That crash was one of at least four that occurred in the span of about an hour.

An older model Jeep Cherokee was scorched Saturday afternoon during a two-vehicle crash that closed westbound U.S. 34 at Weld County Road 17. One driver was seriously injured. (Kevin Maloney/For The Tribune)

The first crash happened about 5 p.m. in the westbound lanes of U.S. 34 at Weld 17. Two SUVs were involved in that crash and both were fully engulfed in flames when Greeley firefighters arrived at the scene.

Both vehicles were westbound on U.S. 34 when one SUV rear-ended the other and sent it into the middle of the intersection, said Cmdr. Aaron Carmichael of Greeley police. The two drivers were the only occupants of the vehicles. One was seriously injured and taken by ambulance to North Colorado Medical Center. The other driver was evaluated at the scene and released uninjured, Carmichael said. A status on the injured driver was not available as of late Saturday night.

It is thought both fuel tanks ruptured during to the crash, which is what caused the vehicles to catch fire, according to a Greeley fire news release. One of the two vehicles was a dark-colored, older model Jeep Cherokee, which had been scorched by flames. It was not immediately known the make and model of the second vehicle.

Greeley firefighter Forrest Anguiano sprays a vehicle with a special agent that breaks down gasoline, rendering it inert and unable to burn. He is spraying down one of two SUVs involved in a crash Saturday on U.S. 34 at Weld County Road 17. Both vehicles caught fire. (Kevin Maloney/For The Tribune)

Police shut down the westbound lanes of U.S. 34, as well as the northbound and southbound lanes of Weld 17 while firefighters battled the blazes. Westbound traffic on U.S. 34 was backed up to at least Colo. 257.

Westbound traffic was moving again by about 5:45 p.m., but it was being diverted to northbound Weld 17 due to the amount of debris in the intersection, as well as ongoing clean up efforts. Greeley fire remained on scene for two and a half hours, providing light for Greeley police’s traffic unit while it conducted its investigation. Officers were hoping to clear the scene and reopen the highway about 9 or 9:30 p.m.

The Greeley Police Department, the Greeley Fire Department, the Weld County Sheriff's Office, multiple ambulances and other agencies responded to the scene.

Just minutes after the U.S. 34 crash was reported, dispatchers aired a second crash on the Interstate 76 Frontage Road at Weld 4. It's unclear if it was a multiple-vehicle crash or a single-vehicle crash, but one person was ejected, according to scanner traffic.

Law enforcement closed both lanes of Weld 4. The injured person sustained a head injury and was thought to be in critical condition. A helicopter was requested to respond to the scene to airlift the person to a hospital.

It is thought both SUV’s fuel tanks ruptured during the crash in the westbound lanes of U.S. 34 at Weld County Road 17. (Jairon Scudder/For The Tribune)

About the same time as the other two crashes, a third was reported on Interstate 25 at milepost 249 near Johnstown. Though it was originally thought to be an injury crash, no injuries were reported.

No other details were immediately available, but The Tribune was awaiting responses from the appropriate agencies seeking additional details. Check back to GreeleyTribune.com for more information as it becomes available.

— Joe Moylan covers crime and public safety for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at jmoylan@greeleytribune.com, (970) 392-4467 or on Twitter @JoeMoylan.

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Weld’s cop shops bucking national recruitment trends

Weld County's largest law enforcement agencies are fully staffed, or as close to fully staffed as they have been in years.

During an interview with The Tribune after taking the helm this past summer, Greeley police Chief Mark Jones said his No. 1 priority was getting his department to full strength and keeping it there. At the time, the Greeley Police Department had been short 14 sworn officers for about a year.

Late last month, Jones announced the Greeley Police Department is fully staffed at 213 employees, 157 of whom are sworn officers.

"It might seem a little odd for a police chief to say being fully staffed is the No. 1 priority, but that's not to say public safety and officer safety are not priorities as well," Jones told The Tribune late last month. "If you're not making it a No. 1 priority all the time, that's when departments could get into trouble."

The announcement comes amid a national shortage of police officers. Yet Weld County’s law enforcement agencies have been able to successfully attract new employees through innovative recruitment techniques, providing competitive compensation and touting the wide variety of assignments new officers can expect to be exposed to during their careers.

Those new methods have paid dividends at the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, as well. Although the sheriff's office isn't fully staffed, Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams said he has more employees today, and less turnover, than at any other point in his 21-year career.

In 2017, the Weld County Commissioners signed off on the addition of 30 new deputies for the agency, including 26 in the jail and four on patrol. The additional jail deputies were added to meet staffing needs as the jail sits today, Reams said.

The Weld County Sheriff's Office is authorized to have 415 employees in 2019, including 190 in the Weld County Jail, 130 on patrol and 95 civilians. The agency is short 12 jail deputies and two patrol deputies. But Reams said there are recruits either in training or going through the hiring process for all of his remaining vacancies.

The Evans Police Department is actively recruiting for one position, which opened in December when an officer retired, said Cmdr. Dan Ranous. The Evans Police Department's roster encompasses 36 sworn officers, as well as one part-time and three full-time civilian positions.

To the northwest, Windsor police Chief Rich Klimek said his agency has one officer in training. When he joins the force full-time, the department will be full-strength as far as its 2018 staffing levels are concerned.

But the Windsor Town Board signed off on the addition of six more sworn officers in 2019, an administrative assistant and a school resource officer — the cost being shared with the school district — to bring the department up to 48 sworn and non-sworn personnel. Klimek already has three candidates in the pipeline and will go to open recruitment for two of the remaining positions. He hopes to have all eight jobs filled by June.

Bucking the trend

Weld County's law enforcement agencies are bucking the national trend. As a profession, law enforcement agencies throughout the country are struggling with recruitment and retention in the wake of highly publicized officer-involved shootings in places like Ferguson, Baltimore and Chicago.

The TV and national media coverage of those events and others like them have created an anti-cop sentiment in much of the country, especially in the larger cities, Jones said.

"You can't pick up a publication geared toward this profession without seeing articles about recruitment and retention," Jones said. "What are you doing to be successful?"

Weld's top cops agree media bias is playing a role in recruitment challenges here and throughout the nation, but Reams said the larger issue is the attention has been focused on a small sample of the overall profession.

"I'm not going to say there aren't departments that need to adjust how they do business, because there are, but they don't make up the majority," he said. "However, they have created a climate that's affecting recruitment and retention for the rest of us, which is what we are seeing now."

How they're doing it

Local law enforcement agencies have been forced to blend old school recruitment techniques with innovative ones to fill their ranks.

Sgt. Jason Edwards, training and personnel officer at the Greeley Police Department, said the department draws applicants from a number of sources, including through word of mouth from officers working with other agencies. The department also worked with the Greeley City Council to ensure its compensation packages are competitive with other agencies. In some cases, the city will pay for a recruit to go through POST certification, so long as they make certain commitments to the Greeley Police Department.

The agency picks up recruits through training, as many of Greeley's officers are instructors who actively recruit applicants at police academies around the state or when providing training to other departments. The Greeley Police Department receives a good number of applicants from the other end of the funnel as well, such as officers from smaller agencies that can't afford to send them to regular training.

"To the general public, training might not seem that important," Jones added, "but to law enforcement officers, it's huge."

But the department has always recruited from police academies and through word of mouth, Jones said. One of the areas where officers have changed their tactics is through the type of people they are targeting as recruits.

Rather than waiting for 20-somethings to graduate with criminal justice degrees, the Greeley Police Department is active in the high schools talking to teenagers about the law enforcement profession. But they're also accepting middle-aged recruits looking to make a career change.

The Greeley Police Department currently has a 41-year-old recruit who recently left his job as a teacher at the Platte Valley Youth Services Center. Soon he'll begin his POST training. Greeley is footing the bill.

But the most attractive aspect about Greeley police is it's what Jones calls a "Goldilocks agency."

"We work big city crime, but we're not so big that you have to put in 10-15 years on the street before you get the opportunity to advance," Jones said. "The hallmark of the agency has always been that if you come here, you'll get a chance to do just about everything there is to do in law enforcement."

Reams also worked with the Weld County Commissioners about making compensation more competitive with other sheriff's offices in the state. One of the big moves was aligning the pay scale for both jail and patrol deputies.

"Being a jail deputy used to be considered an entry-level position, and a lot of people just aren't interested in it," Reams said. "Working in the jail is every bit as hard as working on patrol, so it only seemed fair they be paid the same."

The sheriff's office also has been exploring new recruitment techniques, such as pulling officers from other industries. One example is oil and gas.

"The oil and gas industry can be volatile," Reams said. "In those instances we might not be selling the job itself, but selling the stability of the job."

The Windsor Police Department also has benefitted from word of mouth recruitment. Of its six open positions for sworn officers, Klimek said he has three recruits interested in making lateral moves from other agencies.

Some of those recruits are women, which will boost the number of full-time female officers to five. Traditionally the hardest candidate to recruit and retain in law enforcement, Klimek said he can't remember a time when Windsor has had five female officers.

— Joe Moylan covers crime and public safety for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at jmoylan@greeleytribune.com, (970) 392-4467 or on Twitter @JoeMoylan.

The Platteville Police Department announced Friday it is investigating a fatal train versus pedestrian collision.

The incident occurred about noon Friday near U.S. 85 and Weld County Road 34 on the north end of Platteville. Police, firefighters and paramedics responded to the scene after a witness called 911, according to a Platteville police news release.

The pedestrian, who has not yet been identified, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the release. The Weld County Coroner's Office also responded to the scene and still was investigating the incident Friday night.

Weld County Coroner Carl Blesch said he is awaiting confirmation of the pedestrian's identity through fingerprint records. The pedestrian's identity, as well as the cause and manner of death could be released as early as Saturday, Blesch said.

No other details were immediately available.

— Joe Moylan covers crime and public safety for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at jmoylan@greeleytribune.com, (970) 392-4467 or on Twitter @JoeMoylan.

Pole fire causes one of two power outages reported Friday in Weld

Two power outages were reported Friday in Weld County, according to Xcel Energy's interactive power outage map.

The first occurred about 12:15 p.m. near LaSalle. It affected an estimated 1,399 residents, according to Xcel’s website. The cause of the outage was a pole fire on Weld County Road 394 just west of LaSalle, said Michelle Aguayo, a spokeswoman for Xcel Energy. Power was restored about 2 p.m.

The second power outage was reported about 2:15 p.m. and affected an unknown number of Greeley residents. The issue was resolved as of 4 p.m. Friday, according to Xcel’s website.

The power outages in Weld County represented two of at least 30 others reported throughout the state. The majority of those outages occurred in the Denver metro area, where Winter Storm Gia had dropped 4-6 inches of heavy, wet snow by Friday afternoon. Other power outages were reported in Clifton, which is outside of Grand Junction, and the Georgetown-Silver Plume area off Interstate 70 in the mountains.

— Joe Moylan covers crime and public safety for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at jmoylan@greeleytribune.com, (970) 392-4467 or on Twitter @JoeMoylan.

The Colorado Department of Transportation is asking residents to prepare for adverse driving conditions ahead of the arrival of Winter Storm Gia, which is expected to move into the state Thursday night and drop a mix of snow and rain through Friday.

Forecasters are calling for snow and rain to begin in southern Colorado late Thursday before the storm moves north. The National Weather Service is predicting a 50 percent chance of rain and snow showers in Greeley overnight, growing to a 60 percent chance on Friday.

Total accumulation is expected to be about 1-2 inches. Slushy and icy road conditions are expected for Friday's morning and evening commutes, according to a CDOT news release.

CDOT crews will be on snow shift and working to pre-treat roadways where appropriate. Drivers are encouraged to also be aware of snowplow operations, as maintenance crews will be actively working to maintain the roadways.

Road and weather conditions are available by dialing 511 or (303) 639-1111, or by visiting http://www.cotrip.org.

— Joe Moylan covers crime and public safety for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at jmoylan@greeleytribune.com, (970) 392-4467 or on Twitter @JoeMoylan.

Federal shutdown won’t affect Greeley’s A Woman’s Place

Kyle Monfort Futo, left, representing the Monfort Charitable Trust, and Jean Schober Morrell, at right, after the walls of A Woman’s Place building were stripped down to the studs in an effort to drive away bats before the shelter opened 40 years ago. Tribune file photo.

The federal government shutdown apparently won’t affect domestic violence shelters, including Greeley’s A Woman’s Place, that receive support from funds tied to the Family Violence Prevention & Services Act.

Diane Heidt, who reported for duty as A Woman’s Place’s new executive director this week, said Thursday: “Some of our funding comes from the Domestic Violence Program, which administers the federal FVPSA funds.”

But then she noted this passage from the January 2019 issue of the Domestic Violence Program’s Monthly Publication: “The Family Violence Prevention & Services Act (FVPSA), housed within Health & Human Services (HHS) and administered by DVP, remains operational despite the lapse in funding appropriations. FVPSA is fully funded through Federal Fiscal Year 2019 – September 30, 2019. Therefore, organizations receiving DVP funds should continue to submit invoices and DVP will fully issue all requested payments, per our usual processes. If this information changes, DVP will inform funded organizations as quickly as possible.”

In light of that, Heidt said, “At this point, we don’t foresee any problem.”

Heidt comes to Greeley after working 22 years in social services in Minnesota. She was a vice president of services at Life Track Resources. a non-profit in St. Paul, Minn.

“I excited to be a part of the staff at A Woman’s Place, and looking forward to continued service to the community,” Heidt said.

One person injured after equipment malfunction at oil well site east of Kersey

One person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries following an equipment failure Friday morning at an oil and gas site east of Kersey.

The incident occurred about 8:15 a.m. in the area of U.S. 34 and Weld County Road 69, which is near Hardin, about 10 miles east of Kersey. There was a pressure release at a compressor station and a subsequent fire, said Annie Spalding, spokeswoman for the Platte Valley Fire Protection District, but the compressor was shut in and the fire was extinguished before emergency personnel arrived.

One unidentified person was taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries and, as of 10 a.m. Friday, was treated and released, Spalding said. No other injuries were reported.

Also responding to the call were the Evans and LaSalle fire departments, Banner Health paramedics and the Weld County Sheriff's Office.

It was not immediately known which oil and gas company operates the site, Spalding said.

— Joe Moylan covers crime and public safety for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at jmoylan@greeleytribune.com, (970) 392-4467 or on Twitter @JoeMoylan.